Spain said Tuesday it was withdrawing much of its diplomatic staff from Iraq for security reasons. The Spanish Embassy will remain open but with minimal staffing and a significant number of its 29-member staff is being pulled out, a Foreign Ministry official said, according to The AP.

Meanwhile, Thai lawmakers Tuesday signed in a letter to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, asking the government to withdraw Thai troops from Iraq immediately.

Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, told reporters that he and other 57 senators made the appeal under the current circumstances that foreign forces, led by the United States are controlling Iraq without any UN resolution.

According to Xinhua, he added that the senators supported the government in providing other assistance to Iraq except of armed intervention.